Recent Posts

365 Days with Medieval & Renaissance Wonder Women

Jan-Dec 2025 A 12-month immersive journey of discovery, learning and connection. This immersive learning experience is much more than just an online course. Over 12 months, participants will come together and contribute to a supportive and inspiring online community of individuals who’ll share in a unique learning experience – one that will ultimately deepen their understanding of the lives and experiences of medieval and Renaissance women. Together, we’ll explore the contributions … [Read More...]

These Bloody Days: The Fall of Anne Boleyn

Announcement Time! Introducing ‘These Bloody Days: The Fall of Anne Boleyn’. I’m thrilled to share that the brilliant Dr Owen Emmerson and I have teamed up to bring you a week-long online event exploring Anne Boleyn’s downfall, beginning on Monday 13 May, 2024. Through a series of 6 pre-recorded lectures and one live Zoom discussion, we’ll delve deep into one of the most brutal and shocking events of Henry VIII’s reign. By sifting through the many myths and misconceptions still … [Read More...]

Episode 246 – The Extraordinary Life of Catherine Willoughby with Victoria Male

Victoria Male

Guest Bio Victoria Male is a 2023 Academy Nicholl Fellowship Finalist whose writing also made the 2024 Love List of the best unproduced romance scripts in Hollywood. Her prose has appeared in over a dozen literary magazines worldwide, including oranges Journal, The Chamber Magazine, Carolina Muse, The Icarus Writing Collective, and Retrospect Journal. She worked in creative development for The Montecito Picture Company and media startup Graphic India, in addition to … [Read More...]

Episode 245 – The Life of Alice Spencer with Dr Vanessa Wilkie

Talking Tudors with Vanessa Wilkie

Guest Bio Vanessa Wilkie is the William A. Moffett Senior Curator of Medieval Manuscripts and British History at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. She has a PhD in British history and gender history and an MA in public history from the University of California, Riverside. She lives in Los Angeles. A Woman of Influence is her first book. Website: https://www.vanessawilkie.com/ Dr Wilkie's Tudor Takeaway The National Archives' palaeography … [Read More...]

Episode 244 – The Women Who Served the Tudor Queens with Dr Nicola Clark

Guest Bio Dr Nicola Clark is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Chichester and writes about women in the Tudor period. Her first book, Gender, Family, and Politics: The Howard Women, 1485-1558, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. She also writes for public audiences, with work featured in History Today and History Extra, and has appeared on television as part of the BBC's The Boleyns: A Scandalous Family, and More4's Royal Scandals.  Dr … [Read More...]

Episode 243 – Heroines of the Tudor World with Sharon Bennett Connolly

Portrait of Sharon Bennett Connolly

Guest Bio Sharon Bennett Connolly is the best-selling author of several non-fiction history books. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Sharon has studied history academically and just for fun – and has even worked as a tour guide at a castle. She also writes the popular history blog, www.historytheinterestingbits.com and co-hosts the podcast A Slice of Medieval, alongside historical novelist Derek Birks. Sharon regularly gives talks on women's history, for historical groups, … [Read More...]

Episode 242 – The Life of Anthony Woodville with Danielle Burton

Talking Tudors with Danielle Burton

Guest Bio Danielle Burton is a historian with a focus on the life of Anthony Woodville, but is also a history blogger, who focuses on little known stories from roughly the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. She has worked and volunteered in the heritage sector since 2016 and has a First in History and an MA in Public History and Heritage from the University of Derby. https://voyagerofhistory.wordpress.com/ Danielle's Tudor Takeaway 'A Traveller in Time' by Alison … [Read More...]

Episode 241 – 1000 Tudor People with Melita Thomas

Melita Thomas

Guest Bio Melita Thomas is the co-founder and editor of Tudor Times, a repository of information about Britain in the period 1485-1625. She’s the author of ‘The King’s Pearl’ and ‘The House of Grey’ and is a PhD candidate at UCL, researching Mary I’s networks. Her latest book, ‘1000 Tudor People’, will be released on 28 March 2024. https://melitathomas.com/ Melita's Tudor Takeaway History of Parliament Online Natalie Grueninger speaks with Melita Thomas about her new book '1000 … [Read More...]

Episode 240 – Anne Boleyn’s Psalter with Sophie Bacchus-Waterman

Talking Tudors with Sophie Bacchus-Waterman

Guest Bio Sophie Bacchus-Waterman is a recent graduate of the School of Advanced Study, where she completed her dissertation on the Psalter of Anne Boleyn. She currently works as the Special Collections Photographer at St John's College Library in Oxford, digitizing many of the library's manuscripts and early printed books. She has written for the website The Anne Boleyn Files, and will be presenting her research findings on the Psalter of Anne Boleyn at the annual Kings and Queens conference … [Read More...]

Restoration of Anna of Cleves Holbein Portrait by Heather R. Darsie

By Heather R. Darsie, JD After decades of being on display at the renowned Louvre Museum in Paris, the dark, shadowy portrait of Anna of Cleves has been restored. © 2023 RMN-Grand Palais (Louvre museum) / Adrien Didierjean The portrait was executed by Hans Holbein the Younger in 1539. An eager Henry VIII of England sent the German master to the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg to take an image of Anna von der Mark, second eldest daughter of the deceased Duke Johann III of Cleves. As … [Read More...]

Episode 239 – Four Women Who Wrote the Renaissance with Professor Ramie Targoff

Portrait of Ramie Targoff

Guest Bio Ramie Targoff is Professor of English, co-chair of Italian Studies, and the Jehuda Reinharz Director of the Mandel Centre for the Humanities at Brandeis University. She holds a BA from Yale University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Ramie is the author of numerous books on Renaissance poetry and religion and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. https://ramietargoff.com/ Professor Targoff's Tudor Takeaways Wolf Hall BBC Two series Six the … [Read More...]

‘By her that is yours to serve and obey during her life’ – The Passion of Kateryn Parr by Laura Adkins

A guest post by Laura Adkins Kateryn Parr, the one who ‘survived’ Henry VIII was a survivor most of her life, she was not just a noblewoman whom the King married and outlived, but a member of a family who had close links with the Tudor family, a queen, a stepmother, an author in her own right and the first female in England to have a book printed using her own name. Like Henry VIII, Kateryn wanted to find love and to have a family of her own, and after Henry died she was finally free to do … [Read More...]

Episode 238 – The Life of Catherine Carey with Dr Wendy J. Dunn

Wendy J. Dunn

Guest Bio Wendy J. Dunn is an award-winning Australian writer fascinated by Tudor history – so much so she was not surprised to discover a family connection to the Tudors, not long after the publication of her first Anne Boleyn novel, which narrated the Anne Boleyn story through the eyes of Sir Thomas Wyatt, the elder. Her family tree reveals the intriguing fact that one of her ancestral families – possibly over three generations – had purchased land from both the Boleyn and Wyatt families to … [Read More...]